The GridironFans.com Hall of Fame Inaugral Induction The votes are in and have been sorted to give us our first members of the Hall of Fame. I shall expand on the bio's and information later in the week, but for now here are the names and their nominators. Thanks for voting, and don't forget you can vote for week 2 in the stickied HOF thread. Art Monk (nominated by Sweets) Jimmy Johnson (Nominated by indysteve1563) Barry Sanders (Nominated by PSID412USM) 2006 AFC Championship Game (Nominated by Dam8610) Lamar Hunt (Nominated by Stockers) The Comeback (AFC Wild Card, 1993) (Nominated by brakos82) Brief biographies/additional information to follow soon
Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssss....woooohooo Art finally makes it at first try!!!! I know somewhere Chrisbob is celebrating big time!!!
GridironFans.com Hall of Fame Week 2 Inductees Ken Anderson (nominated by Dan) Chris Hanburger (Nominated by Horrorshow) Wellington Mara (Nominated by Stockers) The Music City Miracle (Nominated by PSID412USM) More to follow as I get time (or get out of the arcade!)
It only received one vote from the judges, which wasn't enough this week I'm afraid! You can always renominate it if you like.
GridironFans.com Hall of Fame Week 3 Inductees Roger Craig (Nominated by Dan) 'The Drive' (Nominated by PSID412USM) Dan Reeves (Nominated by happ)
GridironFans.com Hall of Fame Week 4 Inductees Andre Reed (from hickocksports.com) After playing at little Kutztown State College in Pennsylvania, Reed was chosen by the Buffalo Bills in the fifth round of the 1965 NFL draft. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder was a consistently productive receiver for the Bills, catching 48 to 90 passes a year in 14 of his 15 seasons with Buffalo. The one exception was 1995, when he missed 10 games with an injury. Reed finished in the NFL's top ten in receptions five times, in touchdown receptions four times, and in receiving yards three times. He was also among the ten in yards from scrimmage twice. Reed was chosen to play in the Pro Bowl five years in a row, from 1988 through 1992. Not exceptionally fast, he ran excellent routes and had very good hands and was often used a possession receiver over the middle or on the sideline. The Bills cut Reed after the 1999 season and he went to the Washington Redskins as a free agent. He retired after catching just 10 passes in six games with Washington in 2000. In his 16 NFL seasons, Reed caught 951 passes for 13198 yards, a 13.9 average, and 87 touchdowns. He also rushed 75 times for 500 yards, a 6.7 average, and 1 touchdown. In 19 post-season games, he caught 85 passes for 1230 yards and 9 touchdowns. Reed ranks fourth all-time in career receptions, sixth in yardage, and ninth in touchdown catches. Jerry Rice (from jerryricefootball.com) Rice took the NFL by storm in his rookie season for the 49ers in 1985, recording 49 catches for 927 yards, an 18.9 yards per catch average. The following season, he caught 86 passes for a league leading 1,570 yards and 15 touchdowns. It was the first of 6 seasons Rice would lead the NFL in receiving and touchdown receptions. In 1987 he only played in 12 games because of the NFL players strike, but he still managed to gain 1,078 in receiving yards and an NFL record 22 touchdown receptions. Then in 1988, Rice had one of the best seasons of his career. He caught 64 passes for 1,306 yards and 9 touchdowns, assisting his team to a 10-6 record. Then in the postseason, he was instrumental in the 49ers 28-3 win over the Chicago Bears in the NFC title game, recording 5 catches for 123 yards and 2 touchdowns. But his performance in Super Bowl XXIII was even better. Rice caught 11 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown, while also rushing for 5 yards, assisting the 49ers to a narrow 20-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. His receptions and receiving yards were both Super Bowl records. For his performance, he became only the third wide receiver ever to earn Super Bowl MVP honors. In 1989, San Francisco made it back to the Super Bowl, aided by Rice's 82 receptions for 1,483 yards and 17 touchdowns during the season, and his 12 catches for 169 yards and 2 touchdowns in their 2 playoff games. He was once again a major factor in the 49ers championship win, finishing Super Bowl XXIV with 7 catches for 148 yards and a Super Bowl record 3 touchdown receptions. Rice had another superb season in 1990, leading the NFL in receptions (100), receiving yards (1,502) and receiving touchdowns (13). San Francisco finished the year with a NFL best 14-2 record, but failed to "3-peat" as Super Bowl champions, losing to the New York Giants 15-13 in the NFC title game. Rice made it back to the Super Bowl with the 49ers in the 1994 season, recording a career high 112 receptions for 1,499 yards and 13 touchdowns. During the 49ers first game of that season against the Los Angeles Raiders during a Monday Night showdown, Jerry Rice had one of his best performances, catching 7 passes for a season high 169 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for one more and moving into first place all time in the NFL record books for career touchdowns with 127. The 49ers won the game 44-14. Although he only caught 6 passes in San Francisco's 2 playoff games that year, he proved to be a vital component in their 49-26 victory over the San Diego Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX, recording 10 receptions for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns. In 1995, Rice caught a career high 122 passes for an NFL record 1,848 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns. However, the 49ers lost in the divisional playoffs to the Green Bay Packers, despite Rice's impressive 11 catch, 117 yard performance. The following year, he recorded 108 receptions for 1,254 yards and 8 touchdowns. San Francisco made it to the NFC title game, but once again lost to the Packers. In his 3 seasons between 1994 and 1996, Rice had racked up a whopping 342 catches for 4,601 yards and 36 touchdowns. During the season opener of the 1997 season he tore the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee. The injury broke his streak of 189 consecutive games played. Fourteen weeks later he made his return, much earlier than doctors wanted him to. He scored a touchdown, but when he came down with the catch, he cracked the patella in his left kneecap. He was forced to miss the pro bowl for the first time in 11 years. However, he made a full recovery, coming back to record 82 catches for 1,157 yards and 9 touchdowns in 1998. After 2 more seasons with the 49ers, Rice left the team to sign with the Raiders. He excelled with them in the 2001 season, catching 83 passes for 1,139 yards and 9 touchdowns. In 2002 he did even better, catching 92 passes for 1,211 yards and 7 touchdowns, assisting Oakland to a championship appearance in Super Bowl XXXVII. His team lost the game 48-24, but he had a good performance in it, recording 5 receptions for 77 yards and a touchdown. His 48-yard touchdown catch in the fourth quarter made him the first player ever to catch a touchdown pass in 4 different Super Bowls. Super Bowl XXXVII turned out to be the final Super Bowl game Rice would play in. Oakland dropped from an 11-5 record in 2002 to a 4-12 record in 2003 and a 5-11 record in 2004. Rice left the Raiders 4 games into the 2004 season and joined Seattle for the remainder of the year.Rice would play his last post-season game for Seattle which was a lost to St.Louis. He made the Denver Broncos roster as a sixth wide receiver in the summer of 2005, but retired shortly before the season began, the greatest receiver in NFL history. 'The Catch' (from wikipedia) The Catch was the winning touchdown reception in the January 10, 1982 NFC Championship American football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers. The Catch is widely regarded as one of the most memorable events in NFL history. The play In a game where the lead shifted back and forth repeatedly, the 49ers took over the ball trailing 27-21 and marched down to the 6-yard line with 58 seconds left on the clock. When Joe Montana took the snap, the play, known as Sprint Right Option, was intended to be a pass to wide receiver Freddie Solomon; earlier in the game, Solomon scored a touchdown on that exact play. However, the Cowboys covered Solomon perfectly. Making matters worse, the pass rush of the Cowboys collapsed the 49ers offensive line. Three Cowboys -- defensive ends Ed "Too Tall" Jones and Larry Bethea, plus linebacker D. D. Lewis -- chased a backpedalling Montana to the sideline and were certain to send him out of bounds or make a sack. At the last moment, after pump-faking and getting 6-foot 9-inch "Too Tall" Jones to jump up prematurely, Montana threw a very high pass to the back of the end zone. 49ers receiver Dwight Clark made a leaping grab in his fingertips from the back of the end zone for the winning touchdown with 51 seconds left in the game. He finished the game with 8 catches for 120 yards and 2 touchdowns. The play, remembered in 49er lore as "Red Right Tight--Sprint Right Option" had called for both the primary receiver, Solomon, and Clark to line up on the right. Montana was supposed to roll to his right and find Solomon. Clark's pattern called for him to cut left across the end zone, stop, and immediately reverse his path to the right. If Solomon were covered, it would be up to Montana to find Clark. Due to the pressure, Montana's pass was high, but Clark was in position to make his memorable grab. A photograph of the catch, with Clark at the height of his leap and Everson Walls reaching out to try and block the ball, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Clark and Montana re-enacted The Catch in observance of the 25th anniversary of the play as part of San Francisco alumni day activities at halftime of the Minnesota game November 5, 2006 at Candlestick Park. Reactions Many people claimed that Montana was trying to throw the ball away, leaving time for a fourth down. Clark disputes that assertion, claiming that it was a backup plan that they practiced many times.[2] Montana confirmed that he could not see the end zone through the defenders, but claims that he knew exactly where Clark would be. The 49ers coach, Bill Walsh, assumed that it was a throw-away play and immediately began planning for the fourth down until he heard the cheers from the crowd. As for the height of the catch, Montana has said that he didn't feel that he threw a very high ball. However, Clark leapt as high as he could only to get his fingertips on the ball. Aftermath and legacy While The Catch is well known by most NFL fans, many forget that there were still 51 seconds left on the clock after Clark's touchdown, and with Dallas needing only a field goal to win, the game was far from over. After the ensuing kickoff, Dallas receiver Drew Pearson caught a long pass, but defensive back Eric Wright made a touchdown-saving tackle to keep him from scoring. This play was known as "The Grab." Two plays later, quarterback Danny White lost a fumble while being sacked by Lawrence Pillers, and San Francisco’s Jim Stuckey recovered the ball, sealing a victory for the 49ers. The 49ers won 28-27 and went on to win Super Bowl XVI over the Cincinnati Bengals. This game was a watershed in the historic fortunes of both the 49ers and the Cowboys. After being a losing team in the 1970s, San Francisco went on to win four Super Bowls in the 1980s, and made the playoffs eight out of the next 10 years. Meanwhile, Dallas, the winningest team in the NFC in the 1970s, never made it back to the Super Bowl in the 1980s, and suffered losing seasons in the last part of that decade. The Catch was immortalized by two dramatic calls. Vin Scully described the play on CBS Television: “ Montana...looking, looking, throwing in the end zone...Clark caught it! ” Meanwhile, Jack Buck had the call over on CBS Radio: “ Montana lines up at the five...and on third-down-and-three he rolls right, looking to throw...looking to throw...and he throws into the end zone...Touchdown! Touchdown! Touchdown, San Francisco, by Dwight Clark! ” In 2005, a commercial for the Gatorade sports drink, with the slogan "What Happens When You're A Fraction Off?", portrayed an alternate version of The Catch, in which the ball bounced out of Clark's fingertips. Following the Gatorade logo, the real version was shown with Dwight Clark's completion. This is also done with Derek Jeter's "flip play" going wide of home plate and Michael Jordan's famous buzzer-beater against Cleveland going off the rim. Michael Carter (from Wikipedia) Michael D'Andrea Carter (born October 29, 1960 in Dallas, Texas), is a former U.S. Olympian track & field athlete and American pro football player. Carter is best known in track & field for setting the national high school record of 81 feet 3 ½ inches in the 12 pound shot put, adding more than nine feet to the record previous to Carter. He set this mark at the 1979 Golden West Invitational track & field meet while competing for Jefferson High School of Dallas, TX. No high school athlete has come within five feet of this record since. In 2004 this record was selected by USA Track & Field as the 16th greatest moment in American track & field over the previous quarter century, the only high school mark to make the top 25 greatest moments. While attending Southern Methodist University Carter won four indoor and three outdoor NCAA shot put championships. Additionally, he won the silver medal in the 1984 Olympic Games shot put. A 6'2", 285-lb. nose tackle, Carter was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the fifth round of the 1984 NFL Draft. As a professional football player, he played his entire NFL career with the 49ers from 1984-1992. During his playing days with San Francisco, Carter was a three-time Pro Bowl selection and a three-time Super Bowl winner. Carter is the only athlete to win an Olympic medal and a Super Bowl ring in the same year. His daughter Michelle won the 2006 NCAA outdoor shot put championship Earl Campbell (from Wikipedia) As a collegiate football player at the University of Texas at Austin, he won the Heisman Trophy in 1977. He was selected as the Southwest Conference running back of the year in each of his college seasons and finished with 4,444 career rushing yards. He was the first draft pick overall in the 1978 NFL Draft by the Houston Oilers and in that year named the Offensive Rookie of the Year by the Associated Press as well as the Most Valuable Player. Campbell possessed a rare combination of speed and power, and was a prolific running back from 1978 through 1985. His outstanding single-season performance in 1979 earned him all-pro, Pro Bowl, and NFL Offensive Player of the Year honors. It was also the second of three consecutive seasons in which he led the league in rushing. Only Jim Brown had previously accomplished that feat. Campbell led the NFL in rushing in 1978, 1979, and 1980. He played in five Pro Bowls and finished his career with 9,407 yards and 74 touchdowns rushing along with 806 yards on 121 receptions. In 1980, Campbell's best year in the NFL, he ran for 1,934 yards including four 200-yard rushing games, including a personal best 206 yards against the Chicago Bears. Despite playing against stacked defenses and being gang-tackled nearly every time he carried the ball (a then-record 373 times), Campbell managed to average 5.2 yards per carry and scored 13 rushing touchdowns in 1980 alone. In 1984, he was traded to the New Orleans Saints, reuniting him with his former Oilers coach O.A. "Bum" Phillips. The trade was controversial in New Orleans, as it was widely believed that Campbell's skills had diminished, and the Saints already had the young George Rogers in the backfield. Campbell played in a diminished role in 1984 and 1985, and retired during the preseason of 1986, feeling that the beating he had taken during his career had taken too much of a toll. Campbell is widely acknowledged as one of the best running backs in NFL history. He is considered a prototype for the bruising, power running back. Described as a "one-man demolition team," Campbell was a punishing runner. His 34-inch thighs, 5-11, 244-pound frame, coupled with 4.6 speed, made him the most feared runner of his time. Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Fame defensive tackle Joe Greene claimed that Campbell could inflict more damage on a team than any other back he ever faced. Former Heisman Trophy winner and former Miami Dolphins player Ricky Williams was often compared to Campbell during Williams' days as a player with The University of Texas Longhorns. Even now, short running backs that use powerful legs to their advantage are occasionally nicknamed "Little Earl," most recently to some publicity with Gary Russell of the University of Minnesota.[1] The pride that prodded Campbell to stretch out every run over eight grueling seasons for the Oilers and New Orleans Saints also might have been responsible for his relatively short career. All of the pounding he absorbed, all of the bone-jarring blows from second, third and fourth tacklers wore down his body and prompted a premature drop-off in performance. Debate still rages as to whether Coach Bum Phillips hastened the end of Campbell's career by overworking him; nevertheless, the consensus is clear that during Campbell's heyday, few running backs were as productive or imposing. Boomer Esiason (from Wikipedia) Norman Julius "Boomer" Esiason (born April 17, 1961 in West Islip, New York, grew up in East Islip, New York) is a former quarterback with the National Football League's Cincinnati Bengals (1984-1992, 1997), the New York Jets (1993-1995) and the Arizona Cardinals (1996). Esiason also attended East Islip High School in Long Island, New York, where he graduated in 1979. In 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. He attended the University of Maryland and was drafted in the second round of the 1984 NFL draft (the 38th player chosen overall) by the Bengals, surprisingly low. ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper was, in Esiason's words, "going ballistic" that he was still available in the latter stages of the first round. Two of his teammates on the Terrapins squad, guard Ron Solt and defensive end Pete Koch, were drafted in the first round by the Indianapolis Colts and the Bengals, respectively. No quarterbacks were drafted in the first round; Esiason was actually the first one selected. He was also drafted by the Washington Federals franchise of the now-defunct United States Football League. Bengals: Among the most prolific left-handed quarterbacks in NFL history, Boomer got his first pro start on Oct. 7, 1984, in Cincinnati in a game against the Houston Oilers. On a rainy day, Boomer led the Bengals to a 13-3 win over Houston and scored the game's only touchdown on a quarterback rush near the goalline. Boomer took over for Ken Anderson as the Bengals' full-time starting quarterback on Sept. 22, 1985, in a game in Cincinnati against the San Diego Chargers. He could not repeat the victory of his first career start, as the Bengals fell to the Chargers and eventual Hall of Famer Dan Fouts 44-41. At 6'-5" and 240 pounds, far larger than his predecessor and with a much more powerful arm, Esiason was the signal caller on one of the most potent offenses of the late 1980's, and he was surprisingly mobile, rushing for 1,598 yards on 447 attempts and scoring 7 touchdowns in his career. He was particularly adept at running the difficult play-action pass offense. A little over three years later, Esiason led the Cincinnati Bengals to their second (and to date, their last) appearance in the Super Bowl, where they again lost another close game to the San Francisco 49ers. In Super Bowl XXIII, the 49ers, led by Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, marched 92 yards on their last drive and won the game on a touchdown pass to receiver John Taylor with 34 seconds remaining in the game. A last-ditch pass to wide receiver Cris Collinsworth was broken up. The final score: 49ers 20, Bengals 16. Boomer Esiason has been noted as one of the greatest Cincinnati Bengal-quarterbacks to ever play, along with Ken Anderson and current starting quarterback Carson Palmer. New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals & Back to Cincinnati Esiason signed with the New York Jets in 1993, guiding their offense until 1995. He then signed with the Arizona Cardinals as a free agent in 1996 and was contemplating retirement, but was talked into playing one more season — with the Cincinnati Bengals. The final play of his 14-year professional career was a 77-yard touchdown pass to receiver Darnay Scott. Records & Honors Boomer Esiason was named to four Pro Bowl games (1986, 1988, 1989, 1993) and holds several NFL career records for left-handed quarterbacks, including most touchdown passes (247), passing yards (37,920), and completions (2,969). Among the awards Boomer Esiason has earned during his career include the NFL's Most Valuable Player Award in 1988 (leading the league with a quarterback rating of 97.4), and the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 1995 for his charitable work.
